The core problem is simple, and maddening. Alexander’s final resting place—the Soma of Alexander in Alexandria, Egypt—was one of the ancient world’s most sacred pilgrimage sites. Roman emperors from Caesar to Caracalla made the trek. Then, sometime between the 3rd and 4th centuries AD, history lost track. Earthquakes, rising sea levels, and the slow decay of empires erased the tomb from memory. Unlike the relatively recent discovery of Richard III under a parking lot, Alexander has remained stubbornly, magnificently, missing .
“It’s nonsense,” said Dr. Theodoros Koulianos, a professor of ancient history at the University of Athens, in an interview. “We have Plutarch, Arrian, the Alexander Romance. He sacrificed to Greek gods, consulted the Oracle at Delphi, and spread the koine Greek language. This is not interpretation. This is nationalism dressed as history.” The core problem is simple, and maddening
The latest flare-up began last month when Greece’s culture minister, Lina Mendoni, declared in Parliament that “the Macedonian king is, and always will be, a purely Hellenic figure. Any attempt to co-opt his legacy by neighboring states is an act of historical falsification.” Then, sometime between the 3rd and 4th centuries
But the conflict isn’t just regional. Enter North Macedonia’s powerful neighbor to the east: Bulgaria. Last year, a Bulgarian historian published a genetic analysis of skeletal remains from a 4th-century BC grave near the modern town of Sandanski, claiming “significant Thracian lineage markers” consistent with Alexander’s described appearance. The Bulgarian Ministry of Culture quietly funded a follow-up study, prompting an official protest from Athens and a formal letter from North Macedonia’s prime minister demanding access to the data. “It’s nonsense,” said Dr
And that vacuum of evidence has become a political magnet.
She was not looking at North Macedonia, but at a new documentary funded by a private consortium in the Republic of North Macedonia (formerly just “Macedonia,” a name dispute that took nearly three decades to resolve). The film, The King Who Was Not Greek , marshals fringe archaeological theories suggesting Alexander’s mother, Olympias, had Illyrian (proto-Balkan) roots, and that his court spoke a now-extinct language unrelated to classical Greek.
— He conquered the known world before turning 30, carved an empire from the Balkans to the Indus River, and died in a Babylonian palace under circumstances still debated by historians. But more than 2,300 years after his death, Alexander the Great has ignited a new kind of war: a diplomatic, cultural, and legal brawl over who gets to claim his bones.